Saturday, August 17, 2013

Purpose of Marketing – Delivering a Message or Just Getting Attention?

Do you actually have a message you are trying to deliver (besides some variation of “buy from me”), or are you just trying to do ANYTHING to attract attention your way?

Honestly, either CAN be okay, but it seems like a lot of people miss the boat here.

Perhaps oversimplifying things to make my point, I see there being two (2) main phases of marketing.

Marketing-Phase 1: Deliver a message you REALLY want a group of people to understand…for their own good.

Marketing-Phase 2: Take steps to get people paying attention to what you are doing or who/what you represent.

Once you’ve effectively delivered an effective message that truly reached people’s minds (as well as their eyes or ears), then people tend to be more interested to respond when you are seeking attention for yourself or whatever you are representing.

An Example of This Done Really Well

Robert Kiyosaki of the Rich Dad Poor Dad book series is a perfect example.

In his original book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, he made a few really important points about building wealth that were really easy to understand. His book helped people experience transformational thoughts, meaning that his book shared ideas that made people feel like he changed their lives. Quite honestly, through his book he probably did.

Now, when these people (whose minds he truly reached within his book) see other books or seminars through his company, they are a lot more willing to entertain the idea of spending a lot of money on his different products and services.

It’s true that his company is a well-oiled sales machine, but he (his company) would not reach nearly as many people if he did not share his message for the good of his target audience (people who want to build wealth but don’t know how).

Where Most People Get It Wrong

A lot of people try to skip Phase 1 of marketing, meaning that they go directly to taking actions which are barely anything more than them desperately trying to get your attention.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Some of these people might even offer “helpful tips,” but most people can read something and tell immediately whether the author is really trying to be helpful. In fact, there is a good chance that a lot of these “tips” are rehashed from other places on the Internet. The real purpose (most of the time) is to get you to think that they care about you so that you continue to welcome them (and their ideas) into your life, email, and social media stream.

Many people do not even go through the “pretend step.” They just simply do things to attract attention.

There is a problem with that. Nobody cares about you…until you give them a reason to care about you.

That baby who is crying in the store? We only care about him (or her) enough to wish that Mommy or Daddy will shut up the little brat. The little guy has got our attention, but he is not prompting us into any action that will benefit him.

His ACTUAL Mommy or Daddy, on the other hand, will tolerate the self-centered attention grabbing tactics, because they (presumably) care about the little loudmouth.

Are you going to provide a chance for people to WANT to care about the fact you’re crying for attention (Marketing-Phase 1), or are you just going to start crying for attention BEFORE anyone has a chance to learn WHY they should care about you? Like this post? Other recent posts are

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